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Richer Buns

A sweet yeast bread with currants, candied peel, and optional spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Richer Buns

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the sponge

  1. Melt the butter and sugar in ½ pint of new milk.

  2. Mix ½ pint of warm milk with 1 cup of yeast and strain it into the melted mixture.

  3. Add enough flour to create a thin batter.

  4. Pour the batter into a well in the remaining 2 pounds of flour.

  5. Sprinkle flour over the mixture.

  6. Cover the mixture.

  7. Let it rise.

Make the dough and shape the buns

  1. If using spices, add them to the flour before mixing.

  2. Add the washed and dried currants and candied peel last.

  3. Drop pieces of the dough onto buttered tins.

  4. Allow the dough pieces to take their own shape.

  5. Sprinkle carraway seeds on top.

Bake

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the gluten structure that traps gas and holds the buns together.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide gas that makes the dough rise.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy bursts of fruit throughout the buns.

The step that matters

Letting the sponge rise. The yeast needs time and warmth to ferment the sugar and produce gas. A sponge that has not risen fully leaves the buns dense and heavy after baking.

Swap the allspice

The recipe marks allspice as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, sugar, flour, currant, cinnamon, nutmeg):

  1. Allspicethe original
  2. Clovefits about as well
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, sugar, flour, currant, cinnamon, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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